


Sparks

by vanitaslaughing



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Spoilers, Summoning, i mean its an au but it follows the game's plot with a twist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-08 20:05:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8859220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanitaslaughing/pseuds/vanitaslaughing
Summary: Only the heirs to the throne of Lucis can summon one creature until they ascend to the throne... right?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Karfunkel - deliberately stolen German translation of Carbuncle. Might as well pretend that the German version is helpful in any way, shape, or form*.
> 
> * i play ff games in english

Summoning was easy, very easy. It came near natural to him, the way the surrounding air seemed to tighten to form this creature, the way the wind surged for a moment, the spark, the eventual flame, and with a sparkle it was there. The way this creature, barely made of more than air and light, moved at his every bidding, seemed to understand every single of his thoughts before he even thought about saying anything. The way it wove around his legs, as if it were trying to give him back power where he had once lost it.

His father and Luna's mother stared at the creature in shock.

Apparently he wasn't supposed to do that.

He still did it, in the flower garden with Luna, and it wove around them as they made flower crowns. It was there as he took his first step since the attack, and Luna laughed in delight as it squeaked and jumped up and down. There was no way it's a creature that he shouldn't show his friends, he thought, as Luna leaned forward and pet one of the creature's ears. It was all wind and air and nothing but spark and sparkle, but Luna gasped. He, too, leaned forward and touched it - it had woven around his nearly numb legs constantly, and it felt like nothing more than a wisp, a breeze.

Now that he actually felt it, it was soft. Very soft, and very, very warm. He had expected that, considering the small flame that semed to flicker around as he summoned it, the small flame that seemed to bounce around him even when it wasn't there.

The creature let out a happy trilling sound as both children pet it.

* * *

 

Noctis was older now, and vaguely understood why his father and the Oracle, may she rest in peace, told him to not summon the creature he had dubbed "Carbuncle". Only one of the blood of Lucis could conjure up such a creature, and it was the manifestation of the royal's innermost desires. Noctis also learned that his foxy companion apparently was the weakest of such creatures, and that only a king whose name had been lost to history had conjured it up to stay at his side.

Whoever this unnamed king was, Noctis decided, couldn't have been such a bad person. After all, he too had called upon wind and sparks to dance around him, to banish the dark with the small flicker and the gentle shimmer.

He wondered what his father had done, because he had to have done it as well. All kings and queens of Lucis could summon. Noctis surmised it must have been a creature of water, or one of thunder. Those two sounded intimidating yet regal enough to fit his father, as if they were messengers of Leviathan or Ramuh.

Or maybe it was one of ice, to hail Shiva - after all the royal family was most closely related to death, and the Goddess of Death and Ice seemed like a fitting, highly dignified creature to answer a future king's call.

The carbuncle purred softly on the pillow.

He turned around in bed a little to stare at the ceiling instead of the carbuncle. It continued its soft purring.

He knew his father was unable to summon anymore - he had asked after the disaster in Tenebrae, after he and Luna had to part ways and the Carbuncle had woven around her legs with a sad meeping sound and a soft sparkle. Ever since that day Regis didn't really mind this creature around, for it actively tried to soothe the sobbing princess and had success with it.

Would his father's inability to summon one day befall Noctis as well? It sounded reasonable enough, since one day he would be king like his father before him, and he certainly never heard of his long-passed grandmother summoning something to her side either. Indeed, as he scoured past records of kings and queens before their ascension to the throne (Ignis wondered where the sudden interest in history and reading came from), the only notions of these summons he found was an element written down with the associated heir to the throne. Thunder, Ice, Water and Earth were the most common. There were also such things as Stormwind, Rain, Sunbolt and Skydiver. Noctis certainly wondered what these creatures had looked like, and the carbuncle next to him chirped.

One day he found vague scribbles of these creatures in a book he fished out of a shelf more on accident than anything else. Noctis was elated as he sat down on his bed together with the carbuncle. They looked through the scribbles, and the carbuncle chirped as if to answer every exclamation Noctis made, how the fire bird denoted as "Sunbolt" had a hand in defeating a daemon surge before the Old Wall was finished, or how "Stormwind" was just an earthbound creature that could flash past even the fastest flyer.  
After an hour or so of having fun, they look at a familiar image.

A carbuncle. It was depicted with roughly the same size, the same features. Long, soft ears, a swishy tail, a small horn on its forehead between the eyes, a small snout and large eyes. The only difference was the snarl it wore and the eyes were narrowed.

'Karfunkel. Highly dangerous.'

Noctis and the carbuncle looked at each other, its ears flattening against its head as if to say 'I'm not dangerous'. Noctis knew it helped him get out of this dream that his father and Lady Sylva called "coma", so he trusted the carbuncle. He closed the book, put it away and reached out to gently pat its head.

"I know. You're not dangerous; you're my friend."

* * *

 

He learned he was mistaken a year or so later, when he was barely awake and drifted into consciousness only to see Ignis standing there holding his arm. There was blood on the floor, it was smeared on Ignis' face, and the carbuncle on the bed had it all over its snout. There was a clear bite mark on Ignis' wrist as he stumbled backwards a little with wide eyes behind his gleaming glasses.

Noctis nearly screamed and got up in a hurry, grabbing the trembling carbuncle in a deadlock. It didn't even sway, its narrowed eyes fixed on the clearly shocked future advisor.

"Ignis! What happened?"

The blonde shook his head and continued clutching his arm. "I... It..."

There was a soft hiss from underneath him, and he buried the carbuncle in his blanket. The blood would be a nightmare to wash out, but his attention was focused on Ignis.

"You were... having a nightmare of a sort and..."

Noctis got up and shoved him out of his room. "We need to get you patched up."

There was a lot of commotion on that day once Ignis got patched up. Noctis mentally told the carbuncle to hide in his closet as he asked a maid to take care of the bloodied bed. It stayed there all day, until evening fell and Noctis felt confident enough to drag it out.

Unlike this morning it looked at him with its big eyes, the whiskers along its muzzle vibrating softly as it purrs upon seeing him. If it weren't for the dried blood on its muzzle it would have relaxed him, but for the first time in his life it filled him with dread as he watched the carbuncle leave his closet and as it trotted happily along his side into a bathroom. He really needed to clean it.

Noctis was drying it off when his father entered the room, looking all solemn and serious. They said nothing to each other, and Regis waited until Noctis was finished before he cleared his throat.

"That is why Sylva and I were not happy to see this creature."

"..."

"They are cute, of course, but they are fiercly protective of their owners. It must have assumed young Scientia was there to hurt you in your dreams - yes, Noctis, I know it most likely guided you through your dreams on more than one occasion. Mine did, too, and at some point I too woke up to Clarus having been attacked by her."

Noctis raised an eyebrow. "Her?"

"... Scylla. That was her name."

Noctis remembered the notebook. Scylla had been listed as a creature of earth, one that came to stalward protectors. It made sense now that he heard it, and he nodded slowly while trying to imagine the sccribbled creature next to his sighing father.

"She also tried to attack your mother, and that was the moment I realised - she was a good friend, but there were times I had to draw the line. Eventually he mellowed down, though, especially as I got older and got closer to taking the throne. But still, I could never forget that day."

Noctis stared at his father before shrugging slightly. He couldn't imagine letting the carbuncle vanish, nor let it ever attack someone who meant no harm ever again.

"I will make sure it doesn't do that again, ever."

Regis watched as his son creeped out of the bathroom, his arms wrapped around the fuzzy creature that seemed to glimmer and sparkle somehow.

* * *

 

They had taken the creature with them out of Insomnia. After all, Noctis could just dismiss it and resummon it at will, but he never dismissed it unless absolutely necessary. Much to Ignis' distaste this creature was squealing and yipping in the back seat - he had never really gotten to like it ever since that attack in the morning. Too bad the creature, when it was not hissing and spitting and trying to rip peoples hands off, was rather affectionate. Like one of the cats Monica had in her apartment, except much more dangerous. That sharp row of teeth and the fact it did not need sustenance freaked the advisor out a little more than he liked to admit.

Too bad everyone else seemed to love this creature.

Mercifully enough it also proved to be of help once they started getting into danger, and it hopped into the fishing spots that Noctis set his rod out on and attempted to catch fish that way when they camped. It was unnaturally peaceful, and the soft shimmer of it seemed to intermingle with the glow of the resting points for making camp in the middle of nowhere.

By the time they arrived at Galdin Quay it had become a part of their group. It usually perched on top of his shoulders, slung around his neck like an elegant fur scarf, but this time it was different. When they got out of the Regalia, the creature jumped onto the ground and bristled. There was the low hissing noise Ignis remembered, and even Nocts looked at his summoned friend in concern. Ever since the incident with Ignis, Noctis had taught it to be on guard but never openly hostile.

The air around the tiny creature was choked with a certain sense of foreboding, and Noctis could almost feel its tension like a tiny drill somewhere in the back of his mind. Summoner and the summoned were close, often closer than family. Thus, when this stranger near casually chatted them up, Noctis noticed something odd about the scarf he wore.

It was eeriely familiar, nearly like the "scarf" he wore, though not with a dark stripe where the back would be, and--

_'Art thou going insane? Only the royal family can summon, there's no way he hath one just like thee. 'Tis but an odd scarf.'_

Noctis hoped he had imagined that voice and the narrowed beady eyes staring at him and the others as the man sauntered off into the distance.

* * *

 

"Ah, I have forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Ardyn. Ardyn Izunia."

The 'scarf' the man wore unfolded around his neck. Large ears. Large eyes. A swishy tail.

Noctis and the carbuncle both tensed up more than they already were after fighting Titan and trying to escape certain death, but this was certainly _unexpected_.

They barely escaped, having to take on Ardyn's oh-so-generous offer, and Noctis spent most of the flight staring at the creature sitting next ot Ardyn's leg like a tiny guardian statue.

It looked roughly the same as his, albeit larger, with glassy eyes - that milky sheen made Noctis wonder if this particular creature could even see. The way it narrowed its eyes and bared its fangs whenever the carbuncle moved made the prince cringe.

Where the carbuncle was coloured in soft blue hues, this thing was more of a red-sand-y colour, and the stripe down its spine had the colour of dry blood. The horn was cracked and not pointy and sharp like the carbuncle's, and it was deep black instead of bright red.

Eventually Noctis could place a finger on what about it seemed so familiar. He had seen a creature like this before, albeit in the same colours as his carbuncle - the narrowed eyes, the bared fangs...

"Karfunkel..."

The creature didn't even blink. The next step to his thinking was 'but wasn't it the companion of a king'. Then again, Niflheim was extremely advanced - maybe they had just copied the art of summoning somehow. Yes, that had to be it.

Naturally, Noctis' discomfort went not by unnoticed, and their 'saviour' simply grinned as he scratched the top of the head of this creature that Noctis, despite his unwillingness to, couldn't call anything else but Karfunkel.

Carbuncle, on the other hand, had gotten sick of getting hissed at and rolled up in Ignis' lap. Although the advisor was clearly uncomfortable with it, he simply let it lie there.

* * *

 

Altissia seemingly broke apart around them. Noctis had left to help Lady Lunafreya, and the three of them were to help evacuate the citizens. Except that beside them, chirping unhappily, sat Noctis' carbuncle. Prompto had taken off to help Noctis, and Ignis scowled at the summon with contempt. He wanted to be there and help Noctis as well, of course, but there was no way to get there, and not every person had left the zone of immediate danger yet.

For some reason the creature followed him around instead of Gladiolus, and he was highly uncomfortable with it. Ever since the incident he had kept a respectful distance to the carbuncle. It looked cute, small as it was, but Ignis knew better than to approach it ever since then. Those sharp teeth and its fast movements were hidden underneath the softly glowing fur and the chirping noises it made.

He shuddered as it brushed his leg.

Maybe it was silly to still dislike this creature after all they had been through together, but there had always been Noctis to keep it in check in case it got too adventurous or aggressive. Ignis would never be able to not see this creature standing straight with bared teeth and a trembling body, blood all over its muzzle and the sharp pain as well as the shock when Noctis woke up to see exactly that. Naturally he had taught it to behave after that if only to soothe the nerves of the Citadel staff, but the more the near endless minutes stretched on, the more nervous both Count Scientia and the carbuncle got.

They never interacted much as Ignis avoided it, but by now the seawater-soaked creature was following him around, chirping at the last stragglers as they were evacuated out of the zone of immediate danger. Then the two of them stared after these people, and Ignis eventually sighed.

"We might as well go see if we can find and help Noct, shouldn't we."

It was the first time he addressed the carbuncle directly - it had always just been kind of Noctis' shadow. It let out a trill that stopped rather sudden, and it jumped around with a hiss. A cold shudder ran down Ignis' spine as he watched that; whatever it was had the creature trembling with bared fangs while it hissed, and he felt uncomfortably reminded of the cause of these scars on his lower arm.

He blinked, breathed in slowly and turned around to see what the carbuncle was hissing at. It shot forward with a glimmering flash, and the last thing Ignis Scientia would ever see in his life would be Noctis' carbuncle trying to deflect an attack from Ardyn Izunia's. He toppled over with a scream and writhed in agony as whatever this attack had been seemed to eat through his face.

* * *

 

The carbuncle's formerly soft fur was still sticking out in clumps. one of its ears was torn, and the horn splintered. It also appeared to be missing a fang and a claw or two, but Noctis never got to take a closer look at it ever since they resumed their travels to gain the might of the kings of old and the Astral's blessings. The creature, like the part of his heart that was not screaming in agony, seemed to sit near Ignis the entire time. Wherever he went, the carbuncle was following, sometimes even leading him when Prompto and Gladiolus were too far away.

Gladiolus had a point, Noctis knew that. But underneath the agony of having let Luna die for him and Ignis' injury, Noctis felt the sharp sting of jealousy. This creature had always been his closest friend. It knew secrets that not even the other three knew. Normally it would be weaving around his legs and chriping happily, but now all it did was roll up next to Ignis and meep unhappily whenever the man withdrew his shaking hand.

Noctis even knew that Ignis was still scared of it, the shake of his hand betrayed his slight fear. It was the arm it had injured, after all, but nothing of the former strength seemed to be left in the carbuncle. It was as if the glimmering and shimmering had gone and vanished.

Thus, at some point, Noctis desummoned it, for the first time in years. Ignis let out a small sound of surprise, and even Prompto stood up in shock to look at the heir to the throne of Lucis. Gladiolus mercifully wasn't nearby, for Noctis felt like he would have chewed him out for it.

His father and the late Lady Sylva had forbidden him from doing it. Yet even though he had not summoned in years, he felt the same rush as he felt when he was a child.  
But it had a bitter pang attached to it now. Instead of air and wind seemingly curving around him as it formed, it was merely a small gust. There was no sparking, there was no small flame. When the carbuncle manifested it too still had its fur clumped, the ear was torn and it was most definitely missing more than two claws. Even the normally bright eyes seemed to have taken on a milky sheen - not unlike Ardyn's.

Noctis shivered.

When Prompto toppled off the train after his attack, he nearly started screaming. But not even after that the carbuncle left Ignis' side, and the jealousy spiked a little. It was childish, petty even, but Noctis wanted to be the one who was holding it as the train froze over. It used to be his best friend, like Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto had been, but ever since Altissia and Luna's sacrifice it was all crumbling.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a dirty red streak, and heard a very low trilling sound that sounded more like a malicious cackle to him.

* * *

 

He was along, completely and utterly alone. The only thing that kept him company were the ghastly whispers from the Ring of the Lucii as he nearly stumbled through the halls of Zegnatus Keep in search of Prompto. His magic was sealed, and the carbuncle had been just behind him, together with Ignis and Gladiolus, when they had been separated. Besides, he wasn't certain that he would even be able to summon it.

Now that he wore the ring he understood why the kings did not summon. The ring seemed to eat up this energy, seemed to rip it out of his heart and blood and transformed it into the power to use the magic of the old kings that seemed to bend all creation to its will. Noctis finally understood why his father had always looked so forlorn when he had watched his son and the carbuncle together. Scylla, the summon of earth, or stalwardness and an intense desire to protect - eaten up by the Ring of the Lucii, to fuel the Wall alongside with his father's lifespan.

Ardyn's voice was ever so taunting, as if the man could read his thoughts, and Noctis nearly wanted to scream after what felt like years inside the dark Keep. After finding that this MT looked so much like Prompto that it hurt, he started to hear the soft patter of tiny clawed paws on the cold steel floor. But every time it was close it seemed to whisk around a corner and vanished, and the one time he caught sight of it and yet another MT that looked like Prompto...

Dirty-washed out red, with a streak that looked like dried blood.

Naturally it would have been Ardyn's, the creature the book called Karfunkel. A creature that looked so much like his beloved carbuncle that it hurt, but with a sinister air around it as it slunk around in the dark. It felt nearly comically evil, like the villain of a fairy tale, and Noctis stopped his progression for a second to ponder on that. Maybe there was more to this creature than he assumed, for nothing would be that comically evil.

Indeed, the next time he saw it, the Karfunkel stopped for a second. The movement was nearly the same as the carbuncle's, albeit a lot slower - as if slowed by age.

Before he even heard Ignis and Gladiolus he felt the sudden rush of air around him. Dimmed, slightly, by the distance, but he nearly felt the spark again and his head shot around in the place Ardyn had deemed perfect to trap and hopefully finally finish him off. It still was not shimmering as it had done when they left Insomnia, the fur was clumped and the ear was still torn, but it was there, together with two of his best friends. They only needed to find Prompto and escape this nightmareish place together with the crystal, and all would be well. They could make it out of the remains of Gralea, this place so devoid of human life that Noctis finally had to admit himself that the general populace had already vanished, been turned into daemons, or slain by the very selfsame at this point. Niflheim was as desolate as Insomnia most likely was at this point, and it hurt to think about that.

He didn't bat an eyelash when, after a tearful reunion, the carbuncle stayed near Ignis still. He finally understood its intent - it wanted to make up for what happened all these years ago. Although Ignis apologised to him for that in a moment of looking for Prompto, as they stared down these rows of cells that most certainly held the blonde. Noctis simply smiled at Ignis and grabbed his free hand before saying "It's really not a problem, Ignis".

He removed the ring at the earliest convenience, once they disabled the machine that had blocked his powers. Even the carbuncle seemed to sigh in relief.

* * *

 

Ten years. It took him about four to come to terms with the fact he would not survive. The other six he spent making sure he still knew, and at some points his thoughts drifted off.

Carbuncle and Karfunkel.

If what Ardyn claimed was true, then the power to summon had been inherit to all humans at some point. Of course, not the Astrals. One needed their Blessing and they only came at a whim, at the moment they felt it necessary, and never stayed longer than needed. But these other summons, the ones in the book (that Ardyn had penned, from memory, over the centuries he spent lurking in the shadows waiting for Noctis to be born)... Those had all answered to people's calls before, with everyone having their own although the species often overlapped.

All except for one.

Ardyn's Karfunkel had been unique in many ways, the only one of its species. A creature befitting a healer, for it showed ferociousness where the healer was gentle, spilled light where the healer took in darkness. Small where the healer was great.

And then they were both denied, stripped of their status, and forced to live where others were allowed to die. The former King of Light, the healer the people hailed, was now reviled as dark miscreation of the Starscourge. It was Bahamut who told Noctis when he asked about it, why this creature was so red instead of blue as it was depicted.

The answer was a simple "it was nearly destroyed by people seeking to end the Cursed One".

So it lived as its master lived, unending and constantly reviving. Age and blood had washed out the soft blue and the glimmering, and Noctis curled up a little.

Humans had lost the ability to summon when the Starscourge appeared. Only the healer had remained, and the ability he retained, even if his position and name were stolen, and a copy of the art of summoning was passed down amongst the royal line of Lucis until the Ring of the Lucii consumed the summoned creatures.

In a sense it was more ironic that the King of Kings would appear with the same summoned creature as the healer from times long since past. But the longer he brooded in utter silence, the more he started to understand.

It was a fight between two eeriely similar people; two chosen to heal the Starscourge, two with the same summoned creatures. It was a fight Noctis had never really wanted to fight, except for those several weeks where the intense desire for revenge burned within him. He would have slaughtered Ardyn if given the chance even in the imperial capital, but once he had reunited with his friends that desire had mellowed out. He just wanted peace, quiet. No daemons, no Ardyn.

Of course, that was out of the question, as Bahamut let him know.

* * *

 

Ten years on a throne that should have been his since times immemorial. It was so satisfying, so very satisfying, to defy the Astrals and the very family sprung from the traitor by sitting on this throne.

Hundreds of years, and finally he was where he belonged from the very beginning, but Ardyn waited - waited for the new King of Light to arise again from crystal slumber, to finally stamp out the last of that traitor's bloodline.

He barely heard that very unhappy and hoarse chirp, but when he did catch it he turned to look at his partner with a scowl. All this time they had worked together to get back what should have been theirs, his, but ever since that day in Zegnatus Keep nearly 10 years ago, it had started sounding rather displeased with most things he did. Such as the decoration he had put up in anticipation of the day Noctis would inevitably walk through these doors, maybe on his own, maybe with these three fools - while he was certain these resilent pests survived ten years of darkness he was not sure if they would be allowed to enter the throne room with their liege. Even if they did he had a simple plan of disabling them; he took no pleasure in the riffraff that followed what the Astrals penned as their new King of Light.

Even now the large eyes, nearly blind from sheer age, turned to the ceiling and it puffed up a little.

"Kar."

How long had it been since he'd called out to it? He couldn't remember, he barely acknowledged it in Niflheim due to them immediately making a connection. But summoner and summoned could not stay apart too far or too long, so it had always simply pretended to be a scarf or an accessory, or just hidden itself away nearby. Due to the daemon influence it had lost its glow long ago, thus enabling it to hide even in dark spaces without people immediately noticing it.

Indeed, the few people that would always notice it had been those of House Fleuret. Pesky Oracles and pesky oracle-blooded relatives of theirs.

'Kar' tore its eyes off the ceiling and turned its head to eye him suspiciously. This simple motion hurt more than anything that had happened in the last 500 years or so, and Ardyn huffed along with Karfunkel.

For the longest time it had been the two of them against Eos, against all creation. Just a simple remnant of what humans once were able to do, and the healer that the heavens scorned. Maybe it was just age finally getting to it, but the fox-like summon lay down next to the throne with an unhappy noise.

"He will wake up sooner or later. Sooner rather than later. And then we can end this charade."

_'Is it truly a charade, or just deranged?'_

He cringed on his throne - he had thought that with accepting the very essence of the Starscourge into their bodies they had torn the mental link between summoner and summon from ages past apart, thus being as silent to each other as Noctis and his carbuncle were.

_'Nay, Ardyn, nay, it ne'er broke. I merely followed thee, for I am quite certain 'tis all thou wantedst. But e'er since that day the Oracle perished due to thine intervention in Altissia, I have been thinking. Thou sentst me off to interrupt and incapitate the advisor, the man whom had gotten attacked by the first young of mine kind. 'Fore that point, I did at thine bidding, as Ifrit demanded... Thou remembrest 'twas him who caused the Scourge in the first place, that he was the one who started thine plight for a healer is supposed to cleanse the blight, no matter whether they are chosen as King of Light or nay?'_

He hissed, and the Karfunkel hissed back - summoner and summoned were normally inseparable and were not supposed to have opposing opinions.

 _'The first young of mine kind, and I nearly had to slaughter it for it defended the advisor it once attacked with the anger and despair of a thousand sun-pricked needles. Aye, Ardyn, I hadst suffered under thee, but ne'er once questioned thine intentions. But this,"_ it turned its gaze back towards the ceiling, to the conjured up and most-definitely fake corpses dangling from it, not that the people who would inevitably enter this room knew these corpses were not real, _"goes too far."_

They had been friends since times immemorial. They had worked together during times before he was reviled, had worked together when he had fallen from grace. Even if it had pretended to be mute ever since they lost their reight of ascension, it had always been there for him. Curled up next to his face as he tried to sleep and only started crying. Bumped its head against his legs whenever the time to move on had come for people normally noticed immortals with a strange addiction to violence due to daemon blood pretty much coursing through their blood. He had always taken care of its injuries, for even though it lacked the ability to truly pass on it was just merely a summon, and it got weaker and weaker over time.

For the first time since they were shunned by the gods and thrown out by the general populace and watched their old friend take their name, Ardyn considering desummoning Karfunkel. And he knew very well that the art of summoning was long since lost to him - what he considered doing was essentially wasting its existence away, like the Kings of Lucis did with theirs, just with a severe lack of mythical ring that absorbed the power.

He wanted it to vanish into nothingness.

And Karfunkel, on the other hand, considered calling upon the last remnants of wind and light it had left in its pitifully old body, to hopefully blow a hole into this creature that was more spite-driven daemon than the master it knew and loved.

Neither moved, really. They just sat there, Karfunkel trembling slightly untl Ardyn up and vanished. Of course he would return. He would always return to where his plans led him.

* * *

 

He turned around to once more climb the stairs leading to the Citadel. He was quite certain that somewhere was the dark spot that marked where the carbuncle had left off a flash as bright and hot as a miniature sun. Somewhere was the portrait he and his summoned partner in crime drew on.

Somewhere in the depths of the carpet in his old childhood room was possibly still blood.

Yet Noctis had pat his carbuncle's head farewell as he told Ignis, Gladiolus and Prompto to walk tall. He knew that after ten years he owed Ignis a debt regarding the summon - those two had taken care of each other, despite their bumpy and nearly violent beginning. Now it sat next to Ignis as they watched the daemons appeared, and in Noctis' throat formed a lump he could not have foreseen. As soon as the Starscourge would begin to vanish, so would the daemons - so would the carbuncle. He would have liked it to remain there, with his friends, as the last remnant of the line of Lucis, as guardian spirit of Insomnia once people would inevitably would start to rebuild it.

But of course, the summon went with the summoner. Thus Noctis knew that Ardyn was not entirely gone yet, for the man's summon still lay in the middle of the throne room - both summons had fought it out at the same time as their masters, and it made a pathetic whimpering sound as Noctis entered this dreaded room once more.

He took pity on the unfortunate creature. Maybe this was a fate worse than getting devoured by the Ring of the Lucii - a fate his carbuncle would ultimately avoid.

He picked it up; much like the carbuncle it was light as wind, though so close near death even a creature summoned with the essence of a gust and the sparkle of dawn suddenly seemed to grow heavier.

"It'll be over soon."

_'... I... implore thee... E-End... what he... calledth a.... cha-charade.'_

Even Noctis cringed a little as he heard it speak, and Karfunkel laughed a little. Just that small laugh, a laugh not unlike that of Ardyn during his time as healer instead of perpetuator of the Starscourge; light and surprisingly full of hope.

'Aye... they... ne'er... spoke again... after they... stole our name...'

* * *

 

Both the Karfunkel and the Carbuncle vanished in a burst of glimmer and wind. One was bright and full of promise as the sun rose, and the air around where the creature had sat seemed to shimmer not unlike it, and even the blind Ignis swore he saw that spark flicker out.

The other vanished silently, in a room where only silence resided as the line of Lucis ended, both the first and the last of that name having been healers in their very own regards.


End file.
